Singapore, 24 October 2011 – Singapore Zoo, one of four wildlife parks managed by Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) including the first river-themed attraction River Safari, goes digital with the launch of a Chinese mobile interactive trail for students. This exciting visitor experience uses location-based and Image Recognition Technology to create new learning activities for children at the zoo.

Today, 30 children from Greenridge Primary School will be among the first to try out this new mobile trail, which allows students to observe, explore and discover fascinating facts about the wildlife at the park. Instead of park guides and worksheets, trail participants will be equipped with specially configured smart phones. Pre-loaded content will be triggered by the phones’ Global Positioning System (GPS) as they move around the park.

Upon arriving at a designated site, such as the Wild Africa exhibit for example, the mobile phones will come alive with specific instructions prompting participants to conduct a mini treasure-hunt to look for a specific object within an animal enclosure. Taking a picture of the correct object will enable the children to access imbedded interactive content related to the specific animal at the exhibit. This includes fascinating video clips showing zebras escaping attacks, cheetahs running at top speed and rhinos marking their territories.

“We are very excited about introducing this first of its kind student experience which places great emphasis on real-life usage and interaction skills through the learning of the Chinese language. We are confident this digital generation of young people will appreciate the interactivity and rich content provided by this mobile trail. At the same time, we hope they will take away valuable lessons about wildlife and conservation while becoming proficient and comfortable users of the language.” said Ms May Lok, Director for Education, WRS.

The initiative is a collaboration between Wildlife Reserves Singapore, LDR Pte Ltd, CEOlution Pte Ltd and Neumind Learning Centre. Currently, the programme is only available to school groups. For more information, please contact the education department at eduadm.zoo@wrs.com.sg.

A Greenridge Primary School student completing an exercise about the cheetah while admiring the sleek cat during the launch of the Chinese mobile interactive trailStudents from Greenridge Primary School proudly displaying a completed activity about the zebra on their hand-held device.How do giraffes drink? Students from Greenridge Primary School taking a video to demonstrate this, as part of an activity during the launch of the Chinese mobile interactive trail.